10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Nia Jax

For decades, women in professional wrestling weren't much more than eye candy. Models were brought in to be managers and valets who spent more time in bra and panties matches, pillow fights and bikini contests than any actual wrestling.

Nearly everything revolved around a woman's looks, and the only Superstars who received a push were those who posed for Playboy and got over for their sex appeal rather than anything regarding in-ring work or even microphone skills.

But with the Divas Revolution leading into the WWE Evolution era, much of that had changed. Gradually, the women's division was treated on more equal terms, given better storylines and more of the spotlight.

Not two years after abandoning the Divas moniker, though, did WWE fall back into old habits by having a feud between Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax revolve around the former straight-up bullying Jax over her weight. Instead of the Raw Women's Championship being the focal point of the story, it was the fat-shaming of Jax.

WWE clearly thought the payoff of Jax winning the title at WrestleMania 34 would be worth it and she'd come out of it a strong babyface for overcoming the bullying, but rather than be empowering, it was insensitive. In the end, Jax didn't overcome the hateful remarks from The Goddess through any introspection or anti-bullying message. She just used her size advantage to beat down the petite champion, sending a message that the proper response to these bullies is pure violence.

What made things worse is that Jax turned heel soon after, rendering any positive thoughts that she's a hero for standing up for herself a moot point. All she did was turn into a bully herself!

WWE has done far worse, tasteless angles in the past, but this was certainly one that felt like it belonged in an entirely different era and not something so soon after a paradigm shift of treating female talent better.